The House That Cleans Itself

A house that cleans itself?  Pretty intriguing, huh?  No way, no how, but how?  But really — how now brown cow?  It’s actually the name of a revolutionary book I’ve been reading by Mindy Starns Clark who seems to be as equally housecleaning impaired as me.  (And that is pretty impaired.)   In case you are wondering, the book is awesome, even beyond its title.  And for my ADD-riddled mind, that is nothing short of life-altering.

The premise of the book is so simple a concept, yet so brilliant — to me at least.  Drumroll please — you should not conform your cleaning style (or in my case the lack thereof) to your house or societal expectations of how you SHOULD clean.  Instead your house should conform to YOU and your family’s patterns because, let’s face it, they are not going to change!  Egads, she’s got it by golly!

I first read about the book in Parents Magazine last month.  Intrigued I was when I even picked up a few great tips just from the article about the book.  So I searched high and lo for the book, eventually ordering it through Amazon.  I’ve never actually read a book about cleaning or organizing before, and it was shockingly entertaining.

The first step is to not clean your house for two days to see what the “flow” is in your house, i.e. where the pile-ups occur.  Now THAT (not cleaning for two days!) I can do and do well, even on a regular basis for far longer than two days!  Now this is the book for me!  Step One – a “check,” a gold star, and some serious extra credit!  Next, step back and evaluate the clutter.  Yes, this part is sobering.  However, here comes the zinger, the aha! moment to be all Opra about it.  Instead of trying to make it go away (because it won’t), find the best way to disguise it, contain it, or otherwise conceal it.  Her example is someone who always walks in the front door and regularly throws her coat and bag on the floor.  Problem managed — get a coat rack to throw your coat and bag on.  Same conduct, different perception.  Sign me up for one coat rack to go, please!

Daddy Mac nixed the coat rack idea because he thought it would look too sloppy.  Sloppier than coats strewn all over the floor?  In the spirit of marital harmony, we settled on a a small brown bureau of wicker drawers and put it right in the entryway behind the front door.  Result — after seven plus years of living in this house, I finally have somewhere to put my pocketbook out of the way.  Hallelujah!  It has four bins/drawers, so there is ample room for library books to return, Sam’s shoes, and various and other sundry cluttery stuff.  So far, so good.  It’s not perfect, but more importantly it is a huge improvement.  I really like how the book stresses it is better to have things looking “pretty good” most of the time rather than perfect for one day a month.

I’ve taken other suggestions to heart too — like having a small trash can in the laundry room as well as a big basket in the bedroom to dump clothes into when I don’t feel like hanging them up, which is pretty much always.  I’ve also been keeping a packet of window wipes handy to quickly clean up smudges as they pop up from sweaty five-year-old fingers.

So the house isn’t quite cleaning itself yet, but the messiness and disorder have definitely abated with just a few changes.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress because I’m onto something big here.  Clutter beware!

LibbY